Economics Update

Starting with real estate, the Architecture Billings Index fell to an all time low in November, surpassing the all time low in October. (H/t Calculated Risk)

Also, if you read about houses moving in Southern California, please remember that 55% of those sales are foreclosures. (Again, H/t Calculated Risk)

We are also seeing treasury yields down in expectation of an abysmal Fed Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index at 10:00am on Thursday.

In currency, what can you say? The fed cuts rates to basically 0%, and it's down against other major currencies.

In energy, OPEC pledged cuts of 2.2 million bbl/day from production, but the price fell anyway, to below $40/bbl(!), because investors do not think that it is enough, and because they think that member nations will cheat.

On the other hand, it does appear that retail gasoline has finally bottomed out, as it's up by $0.006/gal today.